Never been on the Freewinds? Here's a look inside one of the luxurious cabins (May 2007)

Another picture of the same room, this time facing more toward the entrance to
the room. The closed door on the right side of the photo is for the bathroom,
which has a toilet, sink and shower. You can see it's a pretty small bathroom,
approximately 5 feet by 5 feet in size. For reference, the bathroom door is
approximately 2 1/2 feet wide.

No obvious references online that I can find regarding the total number of passengers each lifeboat can carry on the Freewinds. But from the photos I've seen, there seems to be a sufficient number of lifeboats to evacuate everyone on board if there is ever an emergency.

Another picture of the same room, this time facing more toward the entrance to
the room. The closed door on the right side of the photo is for the bathroom,
which has a toilet, sink and shower. You can see it's a pretty small bathroom,
approximately 5 feet by 5 feet in size. For reference, the bathroom door is
approximately 2 1/2 feet wide.

The cruise ship Boheme has received an engine overhaul since being purchased by a group of Scientologists, and the vessel soon will get a stem-to-stern refurbishing at a cost of more than $1-million.

But it still has no home port.

The 500-passenger ship sailed out of the Port of St. Petersburg for 19 months while it was owned by Commodore Cruise Lines. But the vessel was purchased this past September by the International Association of Scientologists for use as a sailing religious retreat.

So far, no retreats have been held on the ship, according to Rev. Heber Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International and a founding member of the association.

Instead, the Boheme is undergoing sea trials. A 120-member crew - all members of the Church of Scientology - is aboard, being trained to operate and maintain the ship.

The engine has been modified "to bring it up to our own standards in terms of sailing capability," Jentzsch said last week in a telephone interview from his Los Angeles office.

While the Boheme is the largest ship ever utilized by members of the Church of Scientology, it is not the only one. The church previously used a smaller ship, the Apollo, for retreats at sea, and the church has a history of sailing and training seamen, Jentzsch said. The late founder of the church, L. Ron Hubbard, administered the church from aboard ship for long periods and a publicity photo of him showed him wearing a naval officer's hat.

Portions of the Boheme's interior have been gutted since the ship that took passengers on festive cruises to Key West, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel left St. Petersburg for the last time.

Now there are no gambling or bar facilities on board, Jentzsch said. Those were removed immediately. Within the next few months, the ship's cabins will be stripped, remodeled and redecorated.

Jentzsch declined to say exactly how much the renovations will cost, but said it is more than $1-million.

The Association of Scientologists is searching for a home port for the ship. Because the ship's hull has ice-breaking capabilities, he said, the association has been looking at ports throughout the Scandinavian countries. Warmer climes, including the Mediterranean and Hong Kong, also are being considered.

Jentzsch would not even rule out the possibility that the ship might one day sail into St. Petersburg again. But, by then, it probably will not be called the Boheme. The association intends to change the name of the vessel and is checking now to determine what names have been taken by other ships.

While the Boheme has been sailing in foreign waters, St. Petersburg has been seeking a cruise ship to replace it.

The firm of Post, Buckley, Schuh and Jernigan Inc. is preparing a slick marketing plan that Port of St. Petersburg officials will parade before cruise lines in an effort to woo them to place a ship there.

"The St. Petersburg port continues to be a viable marketplace," said Timothy Travis, port director. "The success of the Boheme here was not lost on the other cruise lines."

Ouch! But it looks like 2 out of 7 days are clear. Fair enough - I'll be blowing bubbles on the other 5

Thanks!!!!

Freewinds doesn't count (no one gets off that ship), and Hanseatic is too small to be of concern-28th, 31st & 1st will be the busy days in town & at the beaches. Enjoy blowing bubbles!

So I'm guess that besides having very few passengers on board the Freewinds, the few paying passengers are probably being pressured heavily to be study OT Hatting courses non-stop, no time for vacation or sightseeing.

Imagine going on an expensive "vacation" in the Caribbean on a "cruise ship", but not even having free time to get off the damn boat to visit the islands.

Having a lot of time on your hands has made Tom and I nosy neighbors - otherwise known as observant. For the last two weekends we have noticed a large cruise ship pull into port - the only cruise ship that we have seen here in Bonaire. Generally the arrival of a cruise ship in any other port means a 1000% increase in the number of pasty, confused looking white people walking through town. Not here - not a single conga line in sight.

We were back at Norca's Cafe and mentioned this to Norca, as she is now our source for all insider island info.

Us: &quot;Hey Norca, what is up with the cruise ship that comes each Sunday but doesn't seem to have any passengers?&quot;

Norca: &quot;Oh, you mean the Scientology cruise ship?&quot; I try not to choke on my Nasi Goreng (delicious, by the way - you have to love a restaurant that can do South American and Indonesian cuisine).

Us: &quot;The Scientologists have a cruise ship?&quot;

Norca: &quot;Oh yes, and I've been on it.&quot;

Scientology, you may recall, is best known as the church of celebrities - Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley (OK - the &quot;A&quot; list falls off fast). It turns out that the mystery boat is called Freewinds - part public relations outreach, part graduate school for Scientologists. The boat cruises this part of the world and invites the locals to come on the boat for an evening to attend concerts. According to Norca it also sails to Columbia and tries to convince former paramilitary fighters and the homeless that Scientology is the solution for their every problem. The graduate school part is that the highest level Scientology &quot;course&quot; that the devout can take is only given on this boat - nowhere else in the world. Paying for taking the course might make this one of the priciest cruises in the world too.

I grew up Lutheran in Wisconsin. I don't know about your experiences of religious &quot;excursions&quot; but can assure you that Lutherans do not own cruise ships in the Caribbean. Rather for me it was Camp Philip in the North woods. Wood cabins, outhouses and hot dogs over the fire. That was it. As we looked up at the boat yesterday and saw the lounge chairs, pool, volleyball courts and the handful of people walking around the boat I thought - these Scientologists might be on to something. In any case it proves that the weirdness here in Bonaire is on land... and definitely at sea too.

In the photo I left in the quote, note the rippling on the hull, which is particularly evident in the bow area. This is called "panting stress" and arises over years as the plates are slammed in due to waves hitting the sides of the ship and then popping out again. Over time, this stretches the metal and weakens it. That's why most commercial ships have a useful life of about 15-20 years, while the FleaWinds is now pushing 50. I shudder to think just how thin the plating is on this rust bucket at this point.

That suggests why they don't sail this thing any further than Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, which are only 20-30 miles apart -- one good storm and they're toast. I bet they only make the 350 mile run to Cartagena, Colombia when they aren't expecting even a single raindrop. Any real wave action and this thing crumples like a beer can against John Belushi's forehead.

No obvious references online that I can find regarding the total number of passengers each lifeboat can carry on the Freewinds. But from the photos I've seen, there seems to be a sufficient number of lifeboats to evacuate everyone on board if there is ever an emergency.

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Sorry to go back and wake up a two year old discussion but I was just catching up and saw an opportunity to comment.

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One of the reasons that the FleaWinds rarely strays from the 20-30 mile legs between Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao is that it may only be permitted for &quot;short international voyages&quot; under its class and insurance certificates. Many older cruise ships even newer than the FleaWinds could not be refitted for International Convention on Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) regulations that came into effect in 2010, which were a significant upgrade to the regulations, and they ended up being scrapped.

SOLAS Rule 21 says that &quot;Passenger ships on short international voyages must carry partially or totally enclosed lifeboats for at least 30% of persons on board, plus inflatable or rigid liferafts to make total capacity of 100% with the lifeboats. In addition, they must carry inflatable or rigid liferafts for 25% of total number of persons on board.&quot; Although I don't have time to slog through the regulations in detail, it appears that ships certified for long voyages must carry fully or partially enclosed lifeboats, instead of the open style shown in the above picture on the Freewinds.

The very upper left of this picture, to the upper left of the square Jacuzzi, shows what appears to be a horizontally mounted canister for an inflatable life raft; there's one on the other side as shown in other photos. These can often carry 50-100 people depending on configuration, so it is possible that the lifeboats on the ship plus the two inflatables have coverage for more than 100% of the passengers and crew. That said, I can't say that I would be all that excited about abandoning ship in a hurricane (or even a moderate tropical storm) to await rescue in an open lifeboat or life raft. So even if this lifeboat setup is legal under the more stringent rules, I certainly wouldn't feel that comfortable sailing in it. Note that all &quot;real&quot; cruise ships today have fully enclosed lifeboats.